David Miliband made his first trip to Afghanistan as Foreign Secretary from 24-25 July.  He attended the funeral of former King Mohammed Zaher, the Father of the Nation and met President Karzai.

Aims:

1. listen and learn about Afghanistan's complex and severe problems

2. show how serious Britain is about helping the Afghan Government reconstruct the country and tackle the security challenges

3. explain what Britain can and can't do for the Afghan people and their country.

What's been achieved in Afghanistan since 2001?

• introduction of a constitution and courts system
• democratically elected President and Parliament
• over 4.5m refugees returning to their native Afghanistan
• more than 5m children now in school (400,000 in 2001) - over a third are girls
• 80% of Afghans have access to basic healthcare (9% in 2001)
• over 10,000km of new roads
• average economic growth of 14% over past six years.

The Foreign Secretary said: "I will be setting out the achievements so far, the challenges we face, and the international response to these challenges and how to improve it."

Podcasts

David Miliband contributed to a series of Guardian Unlimited podcasts during his visits. Listen now:

David Miliband on British troops in Afghanistan, 25 July 2007 (5 mins, 18 s)

David Miliband on the challenges of Afghanistan, 24 July 2007 (6 mins, 50s)